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Will the Golden Globes rewrite the rules for awards seasons to come?
CreditMonica Almeida/The New York Times
Jan. 5, 2018
Harvey Weinstein helped build the awards circuit as we know it. He’ll be gone from this year’s Golden Globes — derided, decried, joked about — but his presence, and questionable legacy, will be everywhere.
Back in the days of VHS, he helped pioneer the practice of sending out screener copies of his movies, asking his staff to hunt down the addresses of members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Disney acquired his company, Miramax, partly because it wanted the Oscars that Mr. Weinstein would win; the 1993 sale gave Mr. Weinstein vastly more cash and power.
He ran awards campaigns like wars, winning six best picture Oscars along the way. Even in recent years, when his power began to wane, Mr. Weinstein threw one of the splashiest parties after the Golden Globes ceremony.
What no one knew was that Mr. Weinstein allegedly used the awards as an instrument of harassment — luring the French actress Judith Godreche to a Cannes hotel room, for instance, on the pretext of discussing his strategy to pursue an Oscar for her.
So now that Mr. Weinstein has fallen, what else about the awards circuit goes? Can ultra-revealing dresses be enjoyed as pure fashion confections? Does knowing that men reliably dominate the directing and producing awards, while many women are noted largely for what they wear, cut into the popcorn pleasure of the night?
Could the red carpet in some sense collapse after Weinstein, the producer taking his own creation with him? JODI KANTOR
CreditLucy Nicholson/Reuters
What we see on the red carpet is often a look that has been bought, and created, by a global brand, or group of brands, from clothes to shoes, bags, jewels, watches and hairstyles. And the individuals involved have been more than willing to secure their financial future by selling it: swirling in it, name-checking it and otherwise promoting it. [READ MORE]
CreditDave Benett/WireImage
A week or so after the 2016 presidential election, the actress Lizzy Caplan arrived in London for the premiere of her “Allied,” a Robert Zemeckis drama set during World World II, in which she starred in alongside Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. She smiled for the cameras and proudly displayed her right palm, where she — or someone — had scrawled “Love Trumps Hate,” one of the meme-worthiest phrases from one of the final speeches of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The slogan infuriated me. [READ MORE]
CreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times
Reporters often arrive on the red carpet armed with questions pegged to whatever controversy is the talk of the awards season. And there always is (at least) one.
In previous years, journalists have responded to the heat in Hollywood by asking celebrities about #AskHerMore, the initiative to query actresses about more substantive things than their outfits; #OscarsSoWhite, which highlighted the dearth of diverse nominees; and, more recently, the presidency of Donald J. Trump.
This year, it is the celebrities, in particular the women, who are defining the agenda. [READ MORE]
CreditClockwise from top left: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images for BFI; Carlo/Allegri, via Getty Images; KW/Getty Images; Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Red carpet photos conceal as much as they reveal. These are professional actors, after all. Old photos, from awards seasons and film premieres long past, show victims of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged harassment captured in front of cameras with the man they now call their abuser. In recent months, many of these actresses have said they felt they had no choice but to smile and pose. The photos have become a metaphor for the difficulty of confronting or rejecting powerful men who harass or assault. [READ MORE]
CreditVittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
By choosing to wear all black, the women of Hollywood (and now men, though to be fair, men announcing their solidarity by wearing black tuxedos, or even black tuxedos with black shirts, most recently a style chosen to denote the hipness of the wearer, is a little like a tree falling in the woods) aren’t taking fashion off the table. They are putting it at the very center of the table. [READ MORE]
Jodi Kantor is a reporter and a best-selling author. She specializes in long-form stories. After covering Barack and Michelle Obama for six years, she published “The Obamas,” about their behind-the-scenes adjustment to the jobs of president and first lady. @jodikantorFacebook
Vanessa Friedman is The Times’s fashion director and chief fashion critic. She was previously the fashion editor of the Financial Times. @VVFriedman
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